Doom: The Next Invasion
by Raven-Lunitek
Summary: Doom's original hero is preparing for the final test of Earth: Chapter 4 is up. I found it!!!!!
1. A Dark Beginning...

DISCLAIMER: The opinions held by Corporal Taggart are not necessarily the opinions of the author

Corporal Flynn R. Taggart, serial #4687, was "enjoying" another fun-filled day at Fort Riley. He didn't have much of a choice, though, so he kept on smiling. Why he was smiling, he had no idea, but his answer to all his superior officers had been "Because I love my job, SIR!" His job (in case you were wondering) was to make an attempt to grow some flowers. Some idealist General had decided that the base wasn't diverse enough so he gave an order to the nearest soldier to "plant some flowers or someone'll plant them for you in a very undesirable location," and never mind that it was a military base. Unfortunately for Flynn, he happened to be the nearest soldier.

At the time, he had felt like showing the General the wrong side of his fist. Now, he just felt like staying out of the way. However, that wasn't an option. Another General was on his way to make a customary inspection: Customary because he happened to be in the town fifty miles away. "_Why did these Generals always see the need to check up on us _'_poor idiots_'"_?_ Flynn thought to himself, "_What the heck_. _Let the Generals run the show. They can't ruin my good day._"

That afternoon, General Majors arrived at Fort Riley. He came, not as the white-gloved General to check the bedposts for dust, but as the bearer of _very_ bad news. He called a base-wide meeting and everyone, from PFC to Colonel, was to attend. That was a bad sign. Usually only Lieutenants got to sit in on executive-officer meetings. _And_ it was mandatory. That was a very bad sign: meetings were _never_ mandatory. Flynn found a seat and watched the doors. The people filtered in and…were those civilians? That was an even _worse_ sign!

Finally, everyone had found their seats and were sitting solemnly. Almost as if everyone already knew what General Majors was going to say. But no one could be prepared for what the General was about to say. Majors took a stand at the podium and all the officers stood up and saluted, including Flynn. After all, he was a soldier too.

"At ease," he said, and all the officers smartly dropped their salutes and sat back down. The way that his face was rapidly growing pale was _really_ not a good sign. Flynn had read reports on Majors and he was a very brave man. Either he was upset about having to speak in public or he had extremely bad news. He looked about ready to speak.

"As I'm sure that none of you know yet, as it has only been recently de-classified, Fort Dexter was attacked today." There was a collective gasp. Majors waited while the murmuring quieted down and then spoke again.

"Sadly, several men were killed and," he swallowed and paled several more shades, "mutilated. Unfortunately, that's not half the reason that it was classified. We believe this was done by…" There was a pause for several seconds and almost everyone could tell what he was about to say, in one form or another. "…Extra-terrestrials."

It was so quiet in that room, you could hear a drop of sweat hit the floor. Flynn himself heard several. It was enough to drive him insane with rage. These perfectly good soldiers were turning chicken because of something they didn't understand. But he restrained himself to better the purposes of the meeting.

"Now, I don't want everyone getting excited about nothing. We could be wrong about this…" As Majors spoke, Flynn was watching his face tell a much different story than his voice was. It was quite interesting listening to a scared man babble. He made a bet with himself that it would sound even different if he had a gun pointed as his brainpan. However, Flynn had no idea just how many lies Majors had told. Certainly more than just a few.

That evening brought several unpleasant surprises. One Private had woken up with a gun pointed at his head and, quite sadly, had his brains blown out several seconds afterwards. The MP's assigned to the base knew who it was due to the fingerprints on the gun, but he had (according to reports, and you could never tell how accurate those were) been dead for several months. He'd died in a training accident. Of course, according to those fingerprints, he was alive and well and had murdered Private Hawkins.

"It's unnatural!" General Majors ranted.

"Nonetheless," Colonel Potter calmly said, "it happened. We have the dead man's body, we have the gun, we have the fingerprints…what more proof do you need?"

"I'm not _saying_ that I don't believe. It's just that…I CAN'T believe it! It goes against my nature!!"

Flynn, who was listening on the other side of the door suddenly heard a chair moving and ran down to the end of the hallway. If you got caught eavesdropping in _this_ base, you got KP duty. He touched the wall at the end of the hall almost triumphantly, turned around a full 180° and continued down the hallway with a confident stride. As he started walking, the door to Colonel Potter's office swung open and hit the wall with a loud thud. Exactly where Flynn had been standing. 

General Majors was saying something about "…Evidence can't be as reliable as you believe it to be…Flynn to blame…" Those last three words hit him like a ton of bricks and it showed: He dropped to the floor as if he really _had _been hit with a ton of bricks. Why would they blame him? What had he done wrong? Sarcastically he thought, "_Did my plants die?_" He chuckled at this and suddenly realized that he'd done it out loud. With the general right there. _Oops._

"I don't know about _your_ base Colonel, but NOBODY LAUGHS AT ME IN MINE!!!" Majors was obviously not happy. "NOW!!! I suggest that you discipline him accordingly…he killed Private Hawkins anyway…"

Suddenly, a sound that went growling up and down the entire sonic spectrum ripped through the air and the roof shattered. The sky above the roof was filled with huge, circular objects that, in certain circles, could be called "UFO's." General Majors starting spewing curses, seemingly in sync with Potter. Flynn watched as both dropped to sleep in almost comic fashion and then, without warning, he joined them.

Flynn awoke with a strange thought. "_I have water in my mouth, yet I'm breathing?_" Flynn swore. The last thing he could remember was tending to his flowers and smiling like an idiot. Now he was most definitely nowhere on earthly maps because you can't breathe underwater. At least, not on Earth. He opened his eyes and quickly shut them again. Slowly, he opened them again to reveal an amazing sight. He was the first Marine (that he knew of) to be abducted by "little green men." It was a historic event. He would be on all the talk shows. But only if he made it back to Earth. 

"_Now, Flynn. If there's one thing that your training has taught you, it's to look at things realistically. NOT like an idiot!!_" From that point on, he seemed determined to get his hands on some hardware (weapons, in lay-speak) and kick some alien arse. However, in the minute-or-so that he'd had his eyes open he had seen nary a light flicker. It was time to bust out of this joint. He looked up and saw the top of the container he was in: it was cylindrical and (well, duh…) the proper size for a human. He looked around and saw several other containers with humans being held in them.

He screamed and shouted curses while kicking at the container, but it seemed to no avail. Without warning, Corporal Taggart's uniform and, separately, the rest of him came flowing out of the container. The liquid, whatever it was, forced its way out of his lungs and he sat there retching for at least two minutes. Rather sheepishly, he put his surprisingly dry uniform back on and looked around for a weapon of some sort. By the door, there were several (human?) rifles on a rack. He grabbed one and walked through the door.

That's when it hit him: he was still in Fort Riley. It was, to be quite blunt, a put-on. There were no aliens, no dead Privates, and potentially no General Majors. He would have to be careful. His eyes carefully searched the hall, while his arms kept the gun trailing close behind. He cautiously walked out into the hall and headed towards Colonel Potter's office. He wasn't sure about any of it.

As he neared the door, he heard voices shouting his name. He spun around, but saw nothing. He opened the door and there were Potter and Majors. Majors saw the rifle he held and shrieked but stood his ground. Flynn could see why: Majors had wet his pants. Flynn said, in a very low voice, "What is going on?"

"W-w-well…y-you see th-the aliens w-w-were gonna c-c-cook us. W-w-we m-m-made a b-b-bargain w-w-with th-th-them."

Potter chimed in now: "What the general means to say, is that it's all a big joke."

"Joke?" Flynn said quietly.

"Yes," Potter replied, "A joke. We were testing you to see if you had the guts to figure it out. And, as we can plainly see, you do. Now, why don't we go out to the quartermaster and return his rifle. I'm sure he'll be most pleased to see _you_."

Something was wrong, though, and Flynn could feel it in his rifle arm. He didn't know what yet, but he would soon find out.

Thus ends chapter 1 of the Corporal Taggart series. Tune in next week, same time—same channel when Corporal Flynn makes a startling discovery.


	2. Conspiracy Revealed!

Corporal Flynn R. Taggart, serial #4687, was "enjoying" another fun-filled day at Fort Riley. He didn't have much of a choice, though, so he kept on smiling. Why he was smiling, he had no idea, but his answer to all his superior officers had been "Because I love my job, SIR!" His job (in case you were wondering) was to make an attempt to grow some flowers. Some idealist General had decided that the base wasn't diverse enough so he gave an order to the nearest soldier to "plant some flowers or someone'll plant them for you in a very undesirable location," and never mind that it was a military base.

As Flynn was kneeling in the dirt of his "garden" he had started, he got the feeling that this had all happened before. Yesterday, as a matter of fact. It had to mean something, but what? Maybe "someone" decided that things should happen a little different this time… Flynn decided to take advantage of the situation. _This time, I plan not to be in that hallway._ He thought to himself. _This time… I'm going to find out what's going on._

That afternoon, General Majors (once again) arrived at Fort Riley. Flynn knew what he was going to say and took his entire speech with a grain of salt. He had an idea that the General was most certainly feeding them lies, but he didn't know how deep they went. 

"Now, I don't want everyone getting excited about nothing. We could be wrong about this…" the General's speech continued. About at this point, Flynn stopped paying attention. He decided that a prudent course of action would be to exit the building quietly. After all, he had to find some answers. He seemed to remember that Colonel Potter would be in his office, so he headed there.

On his way there, he noticed things that he hadn't the day before. Certain people were missing that had not been missing before. Certain _buildings_ were seemingly out of place. So_mething is very wrong here_, he thought. 

Finally he arrived at the building where Colonel Potter's office was. As he walked down the long, tiled hallways, he noticed that it wasn't quite as echo-insulated as it used to be. It was almost as if someone had designed it so he wouldn't be able to get in without them knowing he was there. Things just kept getting fishier and fishier, and Flynn didn't like it one bit, but he had to change things somehow. Of course, it didn't matter if someone had already done so.

As he casually marched up to the door of Potter's office, he heard scuffling noises come from inside. He decided it would not be a good idea to announce his presence, so he opened the door a crack to see what was going on inside. When he looked inside, however, it was definitely not was he was expecting. 

A brown, humanoid creature with spikes all over its body was literally crawling into Colonel Potter's skin. Flynn shut the door quietly and tried hard to keep down his C-Rations after what he'd just seen. They didn't train him for anything like this at boot camp, but it was obvious what it was. Majors had spoken of extra-terrestrials; Well, here one was, and soon to be running amok in its new disguise. 

Flynn decided what he had to do. It was his sworn duty as a Marine to expose the creature for what it was; an alien.

He ran back to the building where the announcement was being made, but everyone had already begun filtering outside. It was too late. But Flynn was the kind of person who would take a shot in the head and keep moving, despite the near-fatal wound, even if it was only to nurse his "scratch." 

He climbed up on a statue sitting outside the building and shouted, "Wait! There's something General Majors didn't tell you!" The crowd of fellow Marines stopped and turned to look at him, but they looked somehow out of place. They looked almost like something out of those horror movies. Each person's eyes he saw had a glazed look to them and none of the people blinked. He half-expected them to raise their arms in comic-fashion and start moving towards him.

"Ah, Corporal Taggart. I see you've discovered our little secret." He knew that voice. That was General Majors, but his speech had taken on a slight accent that was unknown to him. The zombie-marines moved out of the way, and Flynn saw the general moving slowly towards the statue.

"Yes, Bill," he practically spat the name. "I know your secret. Now, answer one last question for me: What in the name of the Creator is going on here!?" Majors stared at him for a moment, then took a deep breath as if he was going to launch into a long explanation; an act that Flynn would've appreciated but did not happen.

"I'll tell you one thing. You're not on Earth anymore. You're on the Martian moon of Deimos. However, you're not going to be seeing Mars anytime soon. We—" Flynn cut him off.

"—Who's 'we?' Huh?"

General Majors composed himself, then continued. "'We' is none of your concern right now. When it becomes your concern, you will be long dead. I, personally, will make sure of that when the time comes." Flynn suddenly realized he had forgotten to wear his side arm. But it was too late for regrets.

Majors started winding up his arm like a pitcher for the Seattle Mariners and for a moment, it looked like he was going to throw something. Abruptly, he stopped and his jaw dropped to the ground. He pulled a long, thin cord out from his throat and suddenly his human disguise dropped to the ground. 

He looked exactly like Potter. 

Flynn knew he was going to have to get out of this alive, but he didn't know how. First, he had to find out what the aliens had against him, and why he was so dangerous as to warrant moving him to another planet. Flynn could tell this was just going to be one of those days…


	3. The Trial Begins

When Corporal Taggart awoke, it was not to the environment he was expecting. He expected to wake up in a very cloudy place with lots of white-winged shimmering people crowded around him, waiting to "show him to his mansion." What he saw when he opened his eyes was a very different world indeed.

The walls around him were built out of bricks that had been coated with some kind of moss quite a while ago. Underneath the moss, however, were all sorts of bloodstains. Including a few in the shape of human handprints. _Human…_ Flynn thought to himself.

Again, his roving eyes continued around the room. The overall design of it was much like an old-timey prison cell; the metal bars in the window too high to reach, the slab of a bed hanging by chains from the wall, the huge metal poles making up the main door of the cell. The likeness was uncanny. So uncanny in fact, that for a moment, Flynn wondered if he had actually been teleported back in time by the aliens after he blacked out.

He decided that the first course of action would be to figure out where he was… and the best way to do that would be through that window. Being that he was six feet and two inches tall and approximately 185 pounds (all muscle, of course), it was a piece of cake for him to hoist himself up to the bars to peek out the window. But he wasn't ready for what he saw. Even if someone had told him what to expect, he wouldn't have believed it.

When he looked outside that window, he saw something that no other human could possibly ever believe; he was on an alien planet. At least, that's what his guess was. In the sky, he could see thousands (millions?) of flying saucers like the ones he had seen the first day after Majors' original announcement. On the ground, he saw buildings like he had never seen before. They appeared to be made of crystal and shone so bright in the sun that he had to shield his eyes when they were in his line of sight.

At this point, he was ready to believe anything. As he sat down on his slab to ponder what he had just seen, there was a metallic clanking sound at the front of his cell.

"You!" the alien shouted. Flynn said nothing, but pointed at his chest in question. "Yes, you, you human ignoramus. You're wanted for trial, so stand up and don't try to escape. We know you humans have little to no protection from our weapons… a couple friends of yours proved that theory for us." Flynn grimaced but still said nothing and did what they said.

The lead alien opened the door while the two behind him kept their palms pointed at him. Apparently, these aliens had some kind of built-in weaponry. The lead alien came into the cell behind Flynn and attached something cold to his hands. The alien then began pushing him forward and he got the hint; he started walking. The other two aliens came farther forward, still with their palms pointed at him.

== == ==

Suspenseful, no? Consider this a sign that I'm still alive, rather than that I'm just lazy… even though I am :P

Anyways, I promise I'll have a much longer chapter in here next time. Flynn Taggart: On Trial For The Human Race!


	4. The Trial! jarring chord

"Corporal Flynn R. Taggart, Serial #4687: Your trial for the human race's crimes against the race of the Naze'tul is hereby brought to order. Grand Inquisitor Lucifer presiding."  
  
Taggart looked around him at the amazing courtroom that surrounded him. The ceiling and walls were made of what appeared to be pure diamond. It could've been some alien material, but he never would find out at this point. He didn't even want to think about what might sit under the floor.  
  
"Corporal Taggart!" Lucifer spoke through a voice-amplifier. As near as he could tell, this trial was being broadcast across the entire planet. He still had no idea how he got here, and quite frankly, he could've cared less. All that mattered to him at this point was the fact that he was close to being convicted for something he never even knew happened until he was charged with it.  
  
One of his guards elbowed him hard in the side, leaving a small gash where its elbow-spike had jabbed him. "Taggart reporting, Your Honor, Lucifer, Sir."  
  
"Taggart, do you understand what you're on trial for?" Lucifer glared at him with what could only be described as a fatherly look.  
  
Taggart glared right back. "I understand damn well, sir. I'm on trial for the crimes of the human race against the race of the Nauze-- um... Nazi..."  
  
"NAZE'TUL!" He screamed through the amplifier.  
  
"Naze'tul..." he said quietly.  
  
"Taggart, do you wish to defend yourself in this trial, or would you rather slander one of our law-abiding defenders to attempt and rid yourself of this awful reputation, knowing full-well that you will fail miserably?" He said sarcastically.  
  
Flynn looked around nervously. Being a soldier was something he was trained for. Being brave was something he was trained for. Being on trial for the entire human race was not something that he had to do after Reveille at 0500. "Well, sir, I think I'll defend myself. I don't wish to push a foul reputation on one of your people."  
  
Lucifer looked surprised. "Honor? From a human? This is something we've never seen before... shall we give this human a hand?" The courtroom remained silent; almost painfully silent. "Very well then. Shall we skip the opening statements and go straight to the evidence?"  
  
A huge clamor arose from the court's audience. Flynn heard various threats to his life and who knows what else shouted from the assorted Naze'tul gathered.  
  
Lucifer slammed his fist down on the desk in front of him, creating a resounding thunder crash that finally managed to shut everyone up.  
  
"As long as I'm presiding in this court, there will be order! Is that understood?" Lucifer took the silence from the audience to mean a submission and continued.  
  
"Now then, in the evidence booth, we have the dead bodies of two Naze'tul officials which we sent to your planet to "negotiate peaceful relations" as your military calls it. At approximately 0930 hours, your planet's time, they began radioing mayday. Your military's surface-to-air missile launchers had destroyed their engines.  
  
"Once on the surface, they were treated like animals. They were hung up on rods and beaten for several of your hours at a time. Then, finally, in an attempt to escape from the cruel humans that did this to them, they were forced to kill several soldiers and were subsequently shot. This is all the evidence the prosecution is setting. Defense?"  
  
Taggart, finally allowed his chance to speak, stood up proudly. "Your Honor, the defense presents the only evidence for him and his race that he can. I don't know how your law system works, but I will say this: Law systems are designed to deliver justice to those who break the law and to protect those who are cheated by it. I deduct that the fact your race even has a law system means that there are those of your race who break it as well, and they need to be kept in check.  
  
"The human race is a generally good-natured race. They watch each other's asses. They do what they can to get by, when they have to. And occasionally, there's a few bad apples that sneak into the system and have to be dealt with. The military officers that your Naze'tul officials ran into were just such bad apples. In conclusion of the defense's evidence, I can only say this: your race should be more cautious in the future. Investigate not just the mannerisms of them, but their culture as well. The human culture generally believes that aliens are always hostile, which would explain the reception your officials got. I don't know if this will convince you or anyone that my race is generally good, but I can sure as hell try."  
  
Lucifer looked at him with what looked like a tear in his eye. "Taggart, in all of my history as a Grand Inquisitor of this law system, I've never felt so compelled by a statement as yours." Taggart looked at him, suddenly slack-jawed.  
  
"Does this mean that you're going to declare us innocent and let me go back to Earth?"  
  
Lucifer frowned. "No, sadly. If I were to do that, I may as well be taking my own hand and putting it on my head to end my life, because rest assured that by the end of the night, someone will have done it for me. No, Taggart... I cannot let you go, but I can give you a very easy sentence. There is a facility on the surface of this planet that we have been sending our law-breakers to.  
  
"Supposedly, it was designed so that the wildlife we kept down there would feed off of the prisoners and it would be a happy medium. Somehow, the prisoners made friends with the wildlife and now the facility is getting crowded. Flynn Taggart, your sentence, to be carried out immediately, is to be sent to that facility and clear it of the prisoners, wildlife, and anything else you find down there. You will be issued a human combat knife and a standard human-military-issue 9-millimeter pistol. May Majekan have mercy on your soul."  
  
Flynn felt himself being sucked into a whirlpool of some kind and felt a heavy metal surface strike his head. He sat up, wishing he hadn't, and looked around. He noticed a combat knife strapped to his belt and a 9mm pistol in his holster. If his guess was right, he was in the facility, and he was in for a hell of a time clearing it.  
  
== == ==  
  
True Doom. Took it long enough to get here, eh? And here all this time everyone thought they were hell-creatures. Wrong! Hehe... think he can make it? (It would take a miracle =P) 


End file.
